The SpaceX Starship rocket has completed the Wet Dress Rehearsal, Flight 12 is now expected no earlier than May 20

Mother's Day (according to FAA agreements). SpaceX Starship could fly again on May 20. The new Wet Dress Rehearsal was successfully conducted on Monday using the facilities at Pad 2 (from which Starship will be launched for the first time considering that Pad 1 is being upgraded to make it more resilient for future launches and landings). SpaceX posted on X, "Launch dress rehearsal completed. During a countdown similar to an actual flight, more than 5,000 tons of propellant were loaded for the first time onto the fully assembled Starship and Super Heavy V3 vehicles." We recall that Starship uses methane and liquid oxygen at cryogenic temperatures to power the Raptor 3 engines of the first and second stages. Thanks to the optimization of ground facilities, despite the size of the vehicle’s tanks, propellant loading occurs in about 30 minutes. This is a high speed achieved due to all previous tests and a record for space rockets. Previously we reported how Flight 12 might have been launched on May 13 but, due to the various tests and inconveniences, the date was then pushed back to no earlier than May 16. Ultimately, it now seems that the launch of Starship will not happen before 0:30 on May 20 (Italian time). There will be other launch windows in the following days at least until May 29. SpaceX will need to recheck the hardware of Super Heavy Booster 19 and Ship 39, and until an official date is indicated, the timelines are still provisional and subject to change. We also recall that Flight 12 will be a suborbital flight. If all goes as planned, the first stage will return to splash down in the Gulf of Mexico without being recovered by Mechazilla of Pad 2, while the upper stage will splash down off the coast of Australia in the Indian Ocean. The trajectory chosen for the twelfth flight will be similar to those of previous ones, although SpaceX, in agreement with the relevant authorities, has decided to slightly modify it to avoid deviating or disrupting air traffic in the Florida area. For this reason, Starship will travel further south towards the Atlantic Ocean. The first orbital launch with recovery of the Ship (assuming the next flights are successful) will not take place before Flight 14, after Flight 12 and Flight 13 have successfully completed (the second with the probable recovery of Super Heavy).